CLAIM: Messi lookalike Reza Parastesh turned his appearance to his advantage and tricked 23 women into sleeping with him.

FALSE

In the news published by the Turkish news outlets like Posta, Hürriyet, CNN Türk, DHA, Fotospor, Oda Tv, Halk Tv, Fanatik, Cumhuriyet, Takvim and Milliyet, it was claimed that Iranian Reza Parastesh, who is considered to be Messi’s doppelganger, seduced 23 women by impersonating the well-known footballer, Lionel Messi. These women, in return, allegedly sued Parastesh. For all the aforementioned news websites, the anchor text in the source hyperlink was a single tweet by the Twitter account named “Insolite TV.”

The caption repeats the same claim aired by the news outlets and has now been shared over a thousand times. The parenthetical statement refers to “Insolite TV” as the origin of the claims.

The claims about Parastesh were also published on websites outside Turkey. The headline from a Spanish news website called Marca read “The Iranian who pretended to be Messi in order to sleep with 23 women.”

However, it is not correct to suggest that Messi’s Iranian doppelganger, Reza Parastesh, conned 23 women into believing that he was the famous footballer Lionel Messi. Neither did these women take legal action against Parastesh. The earliest version of the claim which was tracked down by Teyit is found among Insolite Tv’s tweets. It is an account sharing humorous posts. Reza Parastesh also denied the claims on social media.

Insolite TV is a parody account

The claim about Reza Parastesh can be traced back to a post shared on Twitter on 23 June 2019 by Insolite TV.

The caption in French translates as “He slept with women by mimicking Messi. He is sued by 23 women.” The tweet has now received over five thousand likes.

This Twitter account was first created in 2017 and only 12 Tweets can be displayed. Other Tweets posted by the account can give clues about its parodic characteristic.

For example on 9 September 2018, the account shared the photo of the porn actor, Johnny Sins, and ridiculed him by saying that he would be one of the presidential candidates for the US presidential elections.

Another post about a young person asking God to reduce Ramadan to a shorter period, reassures that Insolite TV is a parody account.

Teyit was able to contact the admin of the account who said that the post was “for fun.”

Reza Parastesh denies the claims

Since the claims were circulating on social media all over the world, Reza Parastesh uploaded a video just to disclaim the news of impersonation and litigation.

The video’s English subtitled version can be found on the website called Omasports.com where the falsity of the claims is highlighted.

In short, the claim that Messi lookalike Iranian Reza Parastesh used his close resemblance to trick 23 women is inaccurate. Allegations of impersonation and litigation are not true. The claim shows an example for “parody,” a category under “seven types of misinformation.”

Graduated from Cumhuriyet University Department of Journalism and Anadolu University Department of Philosophy. He continues his master degree in Gazi University Political Communication Department. He also studied journalism on Uğur Mumcu Investigative Journalism Foundation and writes articles on Ankara in Lavarla.com